Friday, April 30, 2010

The Creator of healings, The Cultivator of deliverances

No event that occurs is by chance. As Rav Moshe Armoni, Shlita, from Jerusalem says, the word, "Mikre" (chance) is the same exact letters as "rak m'Ha-Shem" (only from Ha-Shem). His hand can be clearly seen throughout our daily lives, as events are nurtured and guided by the A-lmighty. It is up to us, though, to refine ourselves, and learn to "read" and discriminate his remarkable works as "The Creator of Healings, the cultivator of Deliverances...." (from the daily morning prayers). Every once in a while, that Hand can be seen remarkably clearly, as He changes the course of nature. Recently, we witnessed His might in closing down air travel to and from Europe. What you probably didn't hear, though, was how that global event saved the life of a young Yeshiva boy from Jerusalem---(my thanks to Norman Feiner for sharing this):

The Great Miracle of the Volcano Shutdown.A universal crisis, millions of people stranded, billions of dollars lost, and one volcanic eruption in Iceland causes chaos across the European continent. Within all this tumult, one Jew merits a smile of loveliness from the Creator of the World, as if whispering to him - my son, the whole world was not created except for you

The story begins with a young Yeshiva student, an 18 year old Yerushalmi, who came down with a fulminate hepatic failure and was mortally ill. With little hope of receiving a liver transplant in Israel, Rav Firer sought to send the boy to Brussels, the world center of liver transplants. The only problem however, is that Brussels under no circumstances transplants non-EU patients in order to save the scanty supply of livers for Europeans. Nevertheless, it was decided to send him to Brussels despite the full knowledge of negligible chance of receiving a liver.

The young Yeshiva student had no choice but to include his name to the long waiting list for a liver transplant. In the meantime, he tried to maintain his learning despite the illness, consciously aware that it will takes weeks, months, and even years till he will be able to be given a new liver. Many patients were on the waiting list, and his name was somewhere on the bottom... And when his turn does finally arrive, it must completely match his blood type and other medical criteria. If it's not a perfect match, he will need to continue waiting ... for a miracle. However, ' Many thoughts in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of HaShem shall stand. HaShem had a different plan for this young Yeshiva student and HaShem's loyal servants produced avalanches of hot ash, rock and gas on Europe, causing Europe to completely shut down its skies into a no-fly zone. No one can leave and no one can enter; a self-imposed siege in the euro zone skies. It is during this time that a young religious Yerushalmi man in the capital of Belgium is sitting in the yeshiva learning Torah. During the course of the shut down airspace above Europe, a person dies in the hospital in the capital of Belgium, a person whom agreed to donate his liver to anyone that might need it. Astonishingly, a liver that is perfectly parametric for our young Yeshiva student.

Health authority of Belgium began searching the liver transplant waiting list but unfortunately, not even one patient was able to fly into Belgium for the very needed healthy liver transplant due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland. As they advanced further on the waiting list, they reached the young Yeshiva student. However it was not offered to the boy due to his lack of citizenship. As the clock closed in on the deadline for time in which the the liver's lifespan for transplanting, the precious healthy liver cannot be wasted and must be swiftly replaced with a diseased liver, no one else was able to arrive in Belgium for the transplant except this young Yerushalmi.

With the clear Divine Intervention, this budding talmid chacham received the liver and is now recovering from surgery. The enormity of this miracle was even greater after the successful liver transplant. The doctors said that the young yeshiva student's liver was very deteriorated and diseased and it was a matter of days his liver would stop functioning completely. The doctors unanimously believe that if this young man had to continue waiting for the liver transplant, he would have been long dead.

Traditional Jewish Medicine is an approach to healing that uses Torah principles to help treat illness. TJM views the physician and patient as partners, looking for clues as to the pathogenesis of the patient’s illness. The physician as messenger addresses health issues in an integrative manner, treating the whole person rather than local signs and symptoms. TJM is the roadmap to promoting our health, balancing our lives, and enabling us to hold the bounty we have been blessed with.

About Me

I chose to practice medicine 15 years ago after being in business for 21 years.
As a chassidic Jew, I find that being a practitioner of Traditional Jewish and Chinese medicine seamlessly fits into my lifestyle. Judaism teaches that when illness strikes, a person needs to ground himself introspectively, determining in which ways his life is out of balance, and do whatever needs to be done to put himself back in a state of connectivity: with himself, his community, and with G-d. I have used this same model to formulate the 10 Principles of Traditional Jewish Medicine (TJM) and to treat my patients. By addressing the whole person — physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually — I have been able to resolve health issues that have stubbornly resisted conventional medical treatment. Each patient’s individual constitution, nature, and life experiences (including traumas) represent the pieces of the map in their unique individual path toward healing and balance. My job as a practitioner is to listen, put the pieces together, and empower the patient to heal himself.